It’s supposed to be an “economic stimulus,” but even a cursory look at the $787 billion boondoggle that President Barack Obama is signing tomorrow reveals that it’s anything but.
It is, quite simply, the worst possible response to our current economic crisis that America could have come up with – making its taxpayers fund an unprecedented bailout of failed bureaucracies at every level of government with money we don’t have.
And yet that’s exactly what’s happened, as “change we can believe in” has turned into nothing more than pouring of hundreds of billions of dollars into the same old government sinkholes.
Which makes it a “major milestone,” alright … on the road to Bolshevism.
Republicans have rightly washed their hands of this monument to central planning, but let’s not forget it was a Republican President who started us down this road – or that it was Republicans who failed to reign in spending when they had the chance, thus creating the liberal blitzkrieg we are currently witnessing.
And what a blitzkrieg it is …
The 1,000-page monstrosity is a socialist’s wet dream – a barrage of left-wing agenda items that not only spends unfathomable amounts of money, but injects government deeper into every American’s life while doing so.
Let’s go to the numbers, shall we?
The soon-to-be “stimulus” law spends a whopping quarter of a million dollars for every job it claims will be created – and remember, most of those jobs (should they even materialize) are going to be temporary construction jobs, not permanent high-paying positions.
It creates at least 30 new government programs and dramatically expands 70 existing ones, which we suppose is just what happens when the three most liberal politicians in our nation’s history (Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid) are given unlimited taxpayer funds to play with.
In a nod to Orwell, the bill spends $19 billion to create a central government database of every American’s health records – which of course will be overseen by a new government agency, the “Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.”
It pumps $87 billion into Medicaid – yet does nothing to address the fund’s impending insolvency.
It also pumps $40.6 billion into school districts – yet does nothing to raise standards.
The bill spends $400 million on climate change research in the NASA budget, and then another $1.6 billion on the Energy Department’s Office on Science, which also conducts climate change research.
Good to know we’re duplicating our politically-correct, agenda-driven spending …
But there are much more fundamental problems with this monstrosity – which is so big we’re funding a new $100 million agency to monitor it.
The bill was supposed to be an “emergency economic recovery” proposal – but only 11.3% of its appropriated spending will be tapped in 2009.
The bill was supposed to be a “transportation and infrastructure” package – but only 17% of its discretionary funding actually goes to those purposes.
What gives, Yo-bama? You basically spent your first month in office telling us the world was going to end if we didn’t pass your emergency infrastructure bill?
Also, the “stimulus” is also chock full of irony.
After the federal government’s “commitment to low income housing” spawned this whole crisis, the “stimulus” spends $6.3 billion to make sure low income homes are more energy efficient.
Not to be outdone, the federal government will spend another $1.5 billion making its buildings more energy efficient, too.
Also ironic is the $500 million that’s being spent to fix the Social Security system’s computers … which we have no doubt will freeze right back up again when they calculate the impact all this new spending will have on the Social Security trust fund.
So who got screwed in this deal?
Well, aside from all of us, our kids and grandkids?
For starters, small businesses.
The Senate version of the “stimulus” included $19.5 billion to assist small businesses dealing with operating losses – a rare good idea. In the final version of the bill, that figure was cut to $947 million.
Also getting left out in the cold was the notion of competitive bidding, as that provision was removed along with the amendment that would have prohibited spending any of this money on things like museums, stadiums, art centers, theaters, parks, highway beautification projects and other frivolous items.
Which means Harry Reid will be getting his Mob Museum …
And what about the average taxpayers? You know, the people who at some point are going to have to pay all of this money back?
Well, if you make less than $75,000 a year, you’ll be getting an extra $13 a week.
So congratulations … that’s your “stimulus.”
Try not to spend it all in one place …
WEB EXTRAS:
THE “STIMULUS …”
By Dave T. February 16, 2009 at 7:25 am
The problem with the “stimulus” package is that it sends the wrong message. The fact of the matter is that many homeowners got into trouble in the first place because they took on entirely too much debt that they could not in fact pay back at the first sign of trouble. So, as a nation we are now about to do the same: take on debt with little consideration as to how we are going to pay it back and who owns our debt (think China).
By Cooter Brown February 16, 2009 at 7:26 am
Glorie, Glorie Hallelujah! King Lincoln’s Marxist dreem is a comin’ to pass…
By James the Foot Soldier February 16, 2009 at 10:42 am
Welcome to Amerika.
Step back and admire the brilliant political strategy:
w. and uber-lib Paulson evaporate all wealth created during their administration in one week of “the sky is falling” news conferences…..scaring the American people into thinking economic armagedon has arrived.
The republican candidate (who we have none other than the in-bred knuckle-draggers in South Carolina to thank) takes his cue from a president with single digit approval ratings and runs around with his head cut-off….hint to political consultants – when a president with single-digit approval ratings suggests something – DO THE OPPOSITE.
Barry stays above the fray and sweeps the floor of these morons and good republicans are caught in the rip-tide handing the boy-wonder a mandate – and a filibuster proof margin with our good friends in Maine and the low-wattage gurgler in Pennsylvania.
Hold on to your seats – this is only Act I, Scene 1.
By roofus February 16, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Obama’s daddy was a Marxist and so are Mr. Obama’s closest long-time associates. Obama knows his bill will hasten the destruction of capitalism and America’s free market.Do not delude yourself; Obama has no intention of restoring our economoy as we know it. Mr. Obama intends to create a neo-Marxist nation and American lemmings are blind to his intent.
By Geert Wilders' Secretary February 16, 2009 at 3:49 pm
We wuz blind, but now we see, roofus.
Are you sure it’s Marxism? Seems more like Islamo-love-fest-mush-pile-ism.
By Pat Hendrix February 16, 2009 at 4:25 pm
“spawned this whole crisis”
Though debunked, you continue to push the canard on a near daily basis. Either you’re dishonest, dumb or both.
As for this Marxist biz, let’s take a look at the record, ladies. Bush and the Republican congress grew the government faster than LBJ’s New Society, they created the most wasteful agency in the history of mankind (DHS) and they piled more on the national debt than every president from Washington to Clinton. They turned a 320 billion surplus when he Bush stepped into office into 1 trillion deficit the day he left. They poured 10 billion a month into Iraq, and lost billions – yes, billions – through corruption.
Marxist state? Lemmings?
Sigh. Dumb since 1670.
By roofus February 16, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Yo Hendrix!
Mr. Obama’s stimulus package will cost taxpayers more than we’ve spent over the past 8 years on the military operations of Iraq and Afghanistan combined. I predict we will probably have stimulus package #2 within the next 6-8 months. Maybe next go-round Obama’s minions will take care of the “First Amendment Problem” and sneak in an Orwellian “Fairness Doctrine” lite as a part of the next inevitable “stimulus.” Mr. Hendrix, I suspect that you aren’t disturbed by the fact that the democratic House passed Obama’s bill without even bothering to read it completely. What? Me worry?
Over one thousand pages. Yes, roughly a billion dollars a page of pork rinds and sausage aimed to feed special interests and Liberal’s pet causes. Thirty million for a mouse in San Francisco! What you say? Billions wasted in Iraq. How about the billions squandered by Fannie Mae and Mac under the droopy eyes of Dodd and babbling Franks? Where’s a “Truth Commision” when you need one?
I submit that in a mere two weeks of presiding, Mr. Obama has single-handedly wasted trillions more than President Bush in eight years of leadership.
By Pat Hendrix February 17, 2009 at 11:52 am
The fact you used the “thirty million for a mouse in San Francisco” only goes to prove my larger point. You’re a sucker. It was made up from whole cloth by a desperate and dishonest House GOPers. Try reading.
Again, you follow with the predictable Freddie and Fannie canard, a fantasy dreamed up on the right and happily digested by those too lazy to actually read. Here are the facts, a novel concept on Fits, but bear with me:
More than 84 percent of the subprime mortgages in 2006 were issued by private lending institutions.
Private firms made nearly 83 percent of the subprime loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers that year. There was no government intervention, it was done entirely because they could charge higher interest rates.
Only one of the top 25 subprime lenders in 2006 was directly subject to the housing law that’s being talked about by conservative critics.
Last, and also related to your inability to read, Obama will sign a 800 billion package today. Bush signed a 800 billion TARP bailout for the banks less than three months ago. Learn to count.
By roofus February 17, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Did not Obama sue banks in the 1990′s for refusing to give loans to peoples unable to repay them? Did not Bill Clinton instruct his justice department to sue banks which refused to loan monies to people completely unable to repay them? Did not the New York Times document in the late nineties that Bill Clinton’s interventionalism would one day create toxic debt?
I completely opposed Bush’s 800 billion dollar bail-out of the banks. As I write, the stock market is completely tanking. Clearly Bush’s and Obama’s plans aren’t working.
A novel concept. How about cutting taxes completely across the board? McDonalds is enjoying record prices because it cut its prices across the board and sales increased as a result. IF taxes were decreased across the board, those of us that actually work and spend our money responsibly, will inject our monies into the economy and tax revenue will increase. The government could learn a thing or two from Ronald McDonald. And President Kennedy. And President Reagan.
By Pat Hendrix February 17, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Again, you can’t read. Fannie and Freddie were not responsible this mess. Look at the stats.
Agreed, TARP is gaint corporate handout.
Tax cuts account for 38 percent of the bill. And you might want to check the top rate during the Kennedy Administration.
By the way, Reagan never signed a single balanced budget. And he raised taxes more than any person in history. Juxtapose that against Clinton’s record on the deficit.
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